Early in 2013 the earth’s level of atmospheric carbon dioxide surpassed the 400 ppmv mark for the first time since records have been kept. Yet in the ten years prior to this “event” global mean temperature have remained more or less static, despite the strong evidence linking increasing greenhouse gases to rising atmospheric temperatures. This “stasis in the global warming” record has challenged earth scientists to understand the sensitivity of the climate system to greenhouse gas increases. So far hypotheses suggest one of two explanations, both related to the interaction of the oceanic and atmospheric part of the climate system across the southern ocean. This talk for the general public will discuss the sensitivity issue of the earth’s climate system, how CO2 has changed over geologic time scales, and the role of the southern ocean in regulating the global climate system. Of importance will be the boundary state of the earth’s deep water mass in past periods of earth history and how that compares to today.

Speaker Biography:

Eugene Domack is a professor of Geologic Oceanography at the College of Marine Science-University of South Florida. He has participated in over 20 ocean going expeditions to the Antarctic margin, 17 as chief scientist. He has worked in ancient geologic strata in East Greenland, Svalbard, Namibia (Africa), and Tasmania (Australia). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. He also is the recipient of a J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship.

The speaker series is located at Weedon Island Cultural and Natural History Center at 1800 Weedon Drive NE, St Petersburg, FL 33702. Light refreshments generously donated from the Friends of Weedon Island (http://fowi.org) will be served prior to the 7 p.m. seminar. Please arrive 15 minutes early to sign in.